For Heather Huggins, being diagnosed with autism as an adult hasn’t held her back from excelling in her role as an experienced engineer with Oracle Data Science Service. Focusing on security and operations she’s spent the best part of 20 years navigating the working world alongside her autism – and to great success. Now, she’s sharing her biggest tips!
Heather’s story
Before we dive into Heather’s nuggets of career advice, let’s get to know the engineer who’s creating a brighter future for herself and others.
She says of her later life diagnosis, “like many women with autism, I was diagnosed as an adult. Given what we now know about autism in girls and non-binary kids, it seems like it should have been obvious sooner. Unfortunately, the criteria for autism was very much cantered around how it typically presents in boys.”
Getting to grips with things, she’s learned how to harness her autism and use it to her advantage, delving deep into topics and expanding her rang of hobbies and abilities.
“I’m a bit of a jack of all trades who jumps from one interest to another at a moment’s notice. Right now, I’m really focused on art, I’ve started learning how to make my own paint from natural pigments. I’m also interested in forensics; a career I originally fancied before cybersecurity grabbed me and pulled me away,” Heather says. This wide range of interests gave her time to explore what she really liked, helping her make choices when it came to her career and understanding what suited her best.
Finding a role that fits
First things first, you need to understand what role would help you make the best use of your capabilities. It’s vital that you read up on jobs and organizations to make sure they’re the right fit for you. Being happy and satisfied in a career is the fastest way to see positive progression so taking time to understand what you like is imperative.
Heather explains, “My advice to folks with autism is the same as my advice to everyone else: know thyself. We all have our own unique strengths and challenges. For example, my special interest in forensic investigation almost certainly primed me for troubleshooting complex technical problems.”
Approaching an interview
It’s time to tackle the interview process. Whilst it may appear a daunting task, Heather’s here to share how to smash through the challenge and find success on the other side.
She reminds candidates, “Despite the challenges that come with autism, I think of it as a superpower. My childhood fixation on phones led to an adult interest in network security and a successful career as a security engineer followed.”
The engineer urges people to approach the situation with complete transparency. This way recruiters will be able to provide you with the support you need from the offset.
“It can be incredibly helpful to be transparent from the start about what you need during the hiring process. Recruiters and hiring managers want you to be successful, and if there’s something that will help you feel more comfortable during your interviews, they want to hear it,” she says.
Advocating for yourself and others
One of the potential challenges faced by people with autism as they enter the workforce is the stereotype pop culture has ingrained in us. It’s important to practice self-advocacy both for yourself and others in your position. By speaking up, it’ll allow colleagues to make sure they’re helping to create the best environment for everyone.
“Obviously the choice to disclose or not is yours, but I’ve found that it’s important to be specific about the kind of support you as an individual need from your colleagues. For example, I don’t always know when it’s my turn to speak in conversations, so I ask my co-presenters to explicitly cue me in. This gives people around you actionable ways to support you, and can help them feel comfortable asking you for support in return,” Heather shares about her experiences at work.
Autism and the working world
At Oracle, we don’t just recognise diversity and differences, we celebrate and credit them as the reasons for our innovation success. That’s why we want to always create an environment that serves everyone no matter their specific needs.
For Heather, she’s found working at Oracle to be beneficial in terms of her personal and career development, “The fact that we’re even having these kinds of conversations sets Oracle apart from most companies I’ve worked.”
One aspect of life at Oracle that’s aided her integration into the company has been access to our employee resource groups and a community of like-minded people.
“Oracle weaves awareness of neurodiversity into the fabric of our culture, starting from the hiring process. I was pleasantly surprised when I completed interview training for our campus hiring initiative, and realized an entire section was dedicated to interviewing neurodiverse candidates,” Heather emphasizes.
Aside from advocating for better treatment and understanding of autism in the workplace, Heather is passionate about encouraging STEM learning for all, a passion encouraged and facilitated by Oracle, “I come from an economically disadvantaged background. If not for family members who happened to work for the phone company, I wouldn’t have had access to any technical education until much later in life.”
She continues illustrating why volunteering on outreach programs is important to her, “Although we’ve improved on that front since I was a child, schools in lower income districts still lag way behind the national average in terms of access to quality technical education.”
Want to join Heather and her team of diverse engineers? Explore our career opportunities and come be part of the future of technology with Oracle.